GOP Steps Up Its Embrace of Uber

William Rouse, the General Manager of Los Angeles Yellow Cab, at podium, takes questions June 25 from the media as hundreds of Los Angeles area taxi drivers circle City Hall in their cabs to protest unregulated ride-share services being promoted through smartphone applications and social media in Los Angeles.

Associated Press

The Republican National Committee has launched a petition to support “innovative businesses,” including Uber, the app-based alternative to traditional taxis that has sparked controversy in a number of cities.

Car-sharing services like Uber are also wildly popular among young, smartphone-savvy voters, particularly in urban areas—a group of voters where Republicans see a lot of room for improvement.

The RNC’s website asks visitors to sign a petition blocking “taxi unions and liberal government bureaucrats” from “setting up roadblocks, issuing strangling regulations and implementing unnecessary red tape to block Uber from doing business in their cities.”

Conservatives liken the government’s treatment of Uber to its handling of charter schools, for-profit colleges and market-based ideas in health care and other highly regulated industries.

“When legislators over-regulate, it’s consumers who pay the price,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus in a statement. “The issue is larger than Uber. How many companies, how many products, how many innovations have died prematurely because the government over-reached and interfered in the free market?”

Critics of Uber say the company doesn’t play by the rules, giving its drivers an unfair advantage over traditional taxis by skipping the licensing and regulatory process that traditional cabs have to adhere to.

Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the RNC, says the campaign will grow in coming months.

The RNC petition comes as the committee convenes in Illinois for its summer meeting. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, is considering legislation passed by the state legislature that would place restrictions on taxi services like Uber, including requiring drivers to have a chauffeur’s license and mandating that a service’s staff members work on average more than 18 hours per week. The RNC is urging Mr. Quinn to veto the legislation, Ms. Kukowski said.

Since then, some localities have given up on restricting Uber. On Wednesday afternoon, Virginia officials said they had reached a deal with Uber and Lyft—another ride-sharing app—that would allow the companies to maintain their operations in the state. In June, the state had issued a cease-and-desist order against the companies.

Other cities have kept up the battle. Uber and Lyft arrived in Miami-Dade county in June, despite local regulations that prohibit unlicensed taxi services. The county has levied fines and impounded the cars of some drivers there, but the services have persisted. The companies have covered the fees incurred by their drivers.

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